Month: June 2020

Divorce can be devastating. Once you establish child custody, you and your family find a way to reach a new sense of normalcy.

Having a child starting college can be an exciting time. Now that one of your children is getting ready for college, it will be time to consider how things will change as you and your other children adjust to a member of your family being away at college.

Here’s what the court will consider when reconsidering child custody.

Age of the remaining children

In addition to one child starting college, your other children are now older and may have more of a say in which parent they live with. In Texas, once children reach age 12, the court gives more weight to their preferences.

While other children may not be old enough for the court to consider their opinion, the court’s decision could impact them as well. It is essential to represent the interest of both you and your children when it is time to reconsider child custody.

Best interests

Just like when the court considered child custody at the beginning of your divorce, the court will ultimately look to the children’s best interest, including:

• Stability of the custodial parent’s living situation
• Other members of the household
• Physical and emotional needs of the child
• The current condition of the parent-child relationship

The court wants children to be in stable environments and to be able to spend time with both parents as much as possible.

While it may be challenging to change your parenting time, it may be beneficial to your children to take another look at child custody now that one of your children will be away at college.

Parents sometimes file for divorce the summer that the last child moves out and goes to college, gets married or just gets their own place. This can lead to an assumption by the children that the parents only stayed together for their sake.

Many parents do engage in this practice. They are done with the relationship. It’s no longer romantic. But they agree to essentially be roommates until the children grow up so as to avoid harming their development by getting divorced. Is this smart?

The answer is complex. Divorce is often difficult for kids in the short-term. They may not have understood that their parents are unhappy, they’re confused by the loss of structure and consistency in their lives and they don’t know exactly what it all means. This can feel like doing “harm” to the children, which is what parents want to avoid.

If you look at the long-term outcome, though, an unhappy home is often more damaging to children than a divorce. Parents who fight and argue can stress the children out. Even when it’s just clear that the parents are not happy together, it can make children uneasy and concerned. In these cases, it is often better for the children when the parents get divorced because those single parents are now happier and able to focus more fully on their children’s happiness. This can reduce the children’s stress, and they will adjust to the routine and lifestyle changes over time.

At the end of the day, if you do decide to get divorced, just make sure you know what rights you have and how to put the children first.

Couples who have focused on building a financial future while married might have amassed stocks, investments, retirement accounts and income properties. Additionally, it is not uncommon for a married couple to either create a business together or cooperate to ensure a business’s growth and prosperity. When divorce becomes a reality, unfortunately, the family business must be accurately valued before it can be divided between the divorcing couple.

How is the business valued?

There are numerous methods for calculating the value of a business. Two of the most common methods include:

• Book value method: This is largely a calculation based on the business’s books. In broader strokes, the book value method examines the original cost of the asset minus the depreciation of the asset plus any increase due to market fluctuations.
• Market approach of valuation: Essentially, the market approach is just that. The valuation is based on what an outside buyer would pay for the business.

Other methods can include liquidation value method, earnings multiplier and the times revenue method.

The date of the valuation is critical

While it might not seem at first that the date of the business valuation is that crucial, it is a quite significant point in the overall calculation. Depending on numerous complex factors, it is not uncommon for a divorce to take months or years to reach a conclusion. If the business valuation is completed at the beginning of the process, the business might hold a different value years later.

It is important to work with an experienced family law attorney who can answer your questions and provide the legal guidance you need.